Does semantic model update skip unchanged files?

[EmanuelParnaiba]

I have quite a large set of data that I use to feed a PBI report and I am thinking about ways to make it update faster. One Idea that came up was creating a second database with historical data that will not be edited anymore apart from the one with recent data, which gets edited daily.

If the semantic model update skips unchanged files, this could - in theory - increase the update speed, does anyone know if this works?

[danextian]

Hi @EmanuelParnaiba 

Have you looked into using incremental refresh on new records or records that have changed? If this isn't feasible for some reason, I'd split the database into at least two - one for the historical data and the other one for current -  and load  them as separate tables to be connected using relationships. You can disable the refresh on historical tables. Note: they need to be loaded separately and not be combined in one query as that will still pull the data from the historical table upon refresh.

[SamWiseOwl · Accepted solution]

Hi @EmanuelParnaiba 

Have you looked into Incremetal refresh?

This lets you:
Indicate how far back to refresh

Provide an update field and only items with a new date will refresh

Using Premium have a live connection for some data, refresh import and finally stored non updating for the oldest.

Official page:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/incremental-refresh-overview

Video guide (Guy in a Cube also made some great ones!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH_mcS9Bv9E